I'm surprised we haven't already had an announcement about this already! This is quite the news if you ask me.

As some of you know, Python has been making its way into the calculator market. So much so that HP, Casio, and Numworks all have some kind of on-calc Python interpreter built in! For some reason, TI didn't get with the program, so to speak, and instead released an external module for the TI 83 Premium CE that allows it to run programs written in Python. As you can imagine, carrying around a bulky module isn't very efficient nor fun. In fact, it disqualifies the TI 83 Premium CE from many standardized tests because they don't allow anything to be plugged into the USB port. To combat this, people have even tried to stuff the module's circuit board (without the case) into the calculator chassis!

TI has apparently realized their blunder and has been implementing a more reasonable option. This was hinted during a video, produced by TI France, because a mysterious TI 83 Premium CE 'Python Edition' was mentioned. Julien, an amazing person over at TI, confirmed that a new TI 83 PCE was in the works:

Julien (Translated) wrote:

- Indeed, just before the next fall, a new version of the TI-83 Premium CE containing Python will be available in stores. If you do not have the calculator yet, we advise you to wait for the news.

Although it's unclear how exactly TI will build-in Python to the TI 83 Premium CE Python Edition, (There's a guessing poll on TI Planet) we do know that it will not be reliant on an external module which will allow it to be used on tests and it will be a lot more convenient! (Though most likely still not nearly as fast as competing calculators)

We finally definitive evidence of the new calculator, and an official picture of the TI 83 Premium CE Edition Python!

Some of you may have noticed that the name doesn't quite match up with the video TI published, I believe we think that's the video narrator's error.

I know we all want to know when will this be available and how much will it cost? Today, promotion shop TS (name may have been botch through my translator) confirmed that the TI 83 Premium CE Edition Python (TI83PCE EP [jeez, the acronym is nearly as long as the full name itself!]) will be available in the fall of 2019, right during the rush when students and parents are looking for a calculator to buy for the upcoming school year. Fortunately, the price won't be changing at all! It will stay at 80 Euro which is about 90 USD! Sadly, it will not be sold in the USA so if you are considering buying it, you will want to consider high shipping costs!

So what are your thoughts about this calculator? How do you think TI will build-in Python support? Do you think the USA will ever get a TI 84 Plus CE Python Edition?

Come on, nobody's reacted to this significant new development over more than 24h ?
I know that most Cemetech readers will never see one because it's a special French-specific model, but still, the undetermined but likely hardware changes could be noteworthy.
For users' sake, I hope TI plans on making a 84+CE PE...

Come on, nobody's reacted to this significant new development over more than 24h ?
I know that most Cemetech readers will never see one because it's a special French-specific model, but still, the undetermined but likely hardware changes could be noteworthy.
For users' sake, I hope TI plans on making a 84+CE PE...

TBH, two of my friends did get an 83 Premium. (We'll see who's laughing now, since they bought their's before the Edition Python.)

I'm not expecting TI to make a 84+CE PE? I mean with their track record... they removed features from the 83 Premium to make the 84 CE. (Not only removing features, but adding a hefty price bump.) Best we can hope for is to just order the 83 PE on Amazon.fr. The shipping actually wasn't too bad, it was still 20 bucks cheaper to ship it here than to buy a 84 CE.

ShinyGardevoir wrote:

Isn't someone making a python interpreter in Ice?

We'll see how far it goes. Even in the best of cases, community projects get abandoned at a pretty high rate. I'm guilty of it myself. I'd just wait for the 83 Premium PE.

Current project: PSEAC: A CAS for the CE written in Basic (for now...)

The 83PCE speaks English out of the box, and has language localizations for at least FR, DE, ES, PT, NL, SV.
However, the keyboard's keys will remain labeled in French, and some of the key bindings are different from those of the 84+CE(-T) - for instance, Apps is a two-key combo on the 83PCE

Last edited by mlytle0 on 13 Mar 2019 10:31:34 am; edited 1 time in total

Won't be long before the different Python implementations on different calculators will be compared to each other, resulting in an 'arms race' of each manufacturer to improve their versions. The education space is shrinking, not growing, so competition is about to ramp up, and Python might be the new differentiating factor for marketing purposes. The different versions may also diverge in many ways, no standard implementation.

Last edited by mr womp womp on 13 Mar 2019 03:44:22 pm; edited 1 time in total

I'm looking forward to seeing how the hardware will be changed. Knowing TI, and considering the fact that they initially announced the TI-Python, instead of actually updating the calc, they will probably just cram the same pyboard into the case. They probably won't even bother with redesigning the board and just literally put a 2nd pcb in the case viewscreen style
Also what do the standardized test rules say about python? That's likely to be a pretty deciding factor for how popular that calc is going to be.

An accessible micro-SD slot, maybe. A slot which isn't populated by the manufacturer and can't be physically accessed without opening the calculator's body before and during the test, not more, at least.

Big news! A few hours ago TI officially added this calculator to their website's main page here and made a product page here!
Unfortunately, there's no specs boost other than the built-in python module but hey, Python!

Unfortunately, there's no specs boost other than the built-in python module but hey, Python!

Its already a nice upgrade
Also, TI is very quick to rebrand their calculators when they improve specs, so if there were to be any improvements, they would have surely changed the name to distinguish it from the 83 PCE.

0% chance. There is some sort of new hardware being added, no software update is going to be able to remove the Python Module if you don't get the Python Edition.

A side note: I spoke to Adriweb because I was curious if we could just get the Python App on the TI 84 Plus CE, would it allow us to utilize the Python Module. Unfortunately, it seems that OS 5.3.5 (which isn't coming to the TI 84 Plus CE in the same form as the TI 83 Premium CE) is required. Although getting the TI83PCE OS on a TI84PCE has apparently been done before, it's reportedly very difficult and no one is willing to tell me how to do it.

0% chance. There is some sort of new hardware being added, no software update is going to be able to remove the Python Module if you don't get the Python Edition.

A side note: I spoke to Adriweb because I was curious if we could just get the Python App on the TI 84 Plus CE, would it allow us to utilize the Python Module. Unfortunately, it seems that OS 5.3.5 (which isn't coming to the TI 84 Plus CE in the same form as the TI 83 Premium CE) is required. Although getting the TI83PCE OS on a TI84PCE has apparently been done before, it's reportedly very difficult and no one is willing to tell me how to do it. :P

Ok, thanks - i have casio fx-cg50 so probably will stick to this or sell my TIs and buy their new edition if python is much better on TI than on Casio

I'm not an expert. Heck I could be spouting crap. Would it be possible, if someone was to, say, look at the differences between the 83 premium os and 84, and write a patch that simply changed everything that's different? Or even better, just made an assembly program that overwrote the OS and replaced it with the 83 premium? (Since it only gets validated on installation of a new OS.)

Current project: PSEAC: A CAS for the CE written in Basic (for now...)

There's no way they did it on the same hardware. Also, for getting the TI-83 Premium CE OS on the TI-84 Plus CE, I've heard that someone over at tiplanet did it, but it presumably took some very specific tampering with the os validation code. You're right about it only validating the os upon reception from the usb port, but modifying it piece by piece would not be trivial at all and require extensive knowledge of the entire os, which nobody really has.

Also, for getting the TI-83 Premium CE OS on the TI-84 Plus CE, I've heard that someone over at tiplanet did it, but it presumably took some very specific tampering with the os validation code.

A few people around here definitely have the knowledge to do basically whatever they want with the OS/calc, but putting the 83PCE OS on a 84+CE hardware was only done twice publicly (AFAIK ?), by BrandonW and Hooloovoo, at least if I'm remembering things correctly from what was said on IRC. That was quite a while ago, too. So maybe their stuff wouldn't work on any recent versions/revisions, I don't know. Also their software/tools/programs were not shared publicly, I believe.

mr womp womp wrote:

You're right about it only validating the os upon reception from the usb port

Nope, for a while now it's been doing "some" (idk which part(s) or to which extent) validation too at each reboot, probably precisely because they figured out some people have messed with flashing modified/other OSes.

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